COMPUTER GRAPHICS

Section – I

INTRODUCTION
 Introduction to COMPUTER GRAPHICS

Computer Graphics involves display, manipulation

and storage of pictures and experimental data for
proper visualization using a computer.
Typical graphics system comprises of a host
computer with support of fast processor, large
memory, frame buffer and
• Display devices (color monitors),
• Input devices (mouse, keyboard, joystick,
touch screen, trackball)
• Output devices (LCD panels, laser printers,
color printers. Plotters etc.)
• Interfacing devices such as, video I/O,
TV interface etc.
Application
Application
model Graphics
program
system

Conceptual framework for

interactive graphics
Typical applications areas are

• GUI • Plotting in business

• Office automation • Desktop publishing

• Plotting in science and technology

• Web/business/commercial
publishing and advertisements
• CAD/CAM design
(VLSI, Construction, Circuits)

• Scientific Visualization
• Entertainment
(movie, TV Advt., Games etc.)

• Simulation studies • Simulators

• Cartography • Multimedia

• Virtual reality

• Process Monitoring

• Digital Image Processing

• Education and Training

 GUI – Graphical User Interface

Typical Components Used:

• Menus • Buttons

• Icons • Valuators

• Cursors • Grids

• Dialog Boxes • Sketching

• Scroll Bars • 3-D Interface

GKS – Graphics Kernel System

by ISO (International Standards Organization)

& ANSI (American National Standards Institute)

SRGP – Simple Raster Graphics Package

PHIGS – Programmers Hierarchical

Interactive Graphics System
 Various application packages
and standards are available:

• Core graphics

• GKS

• SRGP

• PHIGS, SPHIGS and PEX 3D

• OpenGL (with ActiveX and Direct3D)

• X11-based systems.
On various platforms, such as

DOS, Windows,

Linux, OS/2,

SGI, SunOS,

Solaris, HP-UX,

Mac, DEC-OSF.
 Various utilities and tools available for
web-based design include: Java, XML, VRML and
GIF animators.

Certain compilers, such as, Visual C/C++, Visual

Basic, Borland C/C++, Borland Pascal, Turbo C, Turbo
Pascal, Gnu C/C++, Java provide their own graphical
libraries, API, support and help for programming 2-
D/3-D graphics.
Some these systems are
• device-independent (X11, OpenGL )

• device-dependent (Solaris, HP-AGP ).

Four basic output primitives (or elements)
for drawing pictures:
• POLYLINE

• Filled POLYGONS (regions)

Four major areas of Computer
• ELLIPSE (ARC) Graphics are:
• Display of information,
• TEXT
• Design/Modeling,
• Raster IMAGE
• Simulation and

• User Interface.
 Computer Graphics systems could be active or
passive.

In both cases, the input to the system is the scene

description and output is a static or animated scene to
be displayed.

In case of active systems, the user controls the

display with the help of a GUI, using an input device.

Computer Graphics is now-a-days, a significant

component of almost all systems and applications of
computers in every field of life.
Various fundamental concepts and principles
in Computer Graphics are

Display Systems
Storage displays, Random scan, Raster refresh
displays, CRT basics, video basics, Flat panel
displays.

Transformations
Affine ( 2-D and 3-D ): Rotation, Translation,
Scale, Reflection and Shear.
Viewing: The Camera Transformations -
perspective, orthographic, isometric and
stereographic views, Quaternion.
Scan Conversion and Clipping
Drawing of Points, Lines, Markers, Curves,
Circles, Ellipse, Polyline, Polygon. Area filling, fill-style,
fill pattern, clipping algorithms, anti-aliasing etc.

Hidden Surface Removal

Back face culling, Painter's algorithm, scan-line
algorithm, BSP-trees, Z-buffer/sorting, Ray tracing etc.

Shading & Illumination

Phong's shading model, texture mapping, bump
mapping, Gouraud shading, Shadows and background,
Color models etc.
Solid Modeling
Wire-frame, Octrees, Sweep, Boundary
representations. Regularized Boolean set
operations, Constructive Solid Geometry.

Curves and Surfaces

Bezier (Bernstein Polynomials) Curves, B-
Splines, Cubic-Splines, Quadratic surfaces,
parametric and non-parametric forms, Hermite
Curves etc.
Miscellaneous
Animation, Fractals, Projection and
Viewing, Geometry, Modeling, Image File
formats, Image Morphing, Interaction (sample
and event-driven) etc.

Advanced Raster Graphics Architecture

Display Processors, Pipeline and parallel
architectures, multi-processor systems, hybrid
architectures.